Do you use navigation buttons?  

19 members have voted

  1. 1. I do use them to navigate:

    • On machines without touch screens.
      7
    • On machines with touch screens (I ignore or don't have a dedicated Back button).
      5
    • On both touch-enabled and non-touch hardware.
      3
    • No. Who are you?
      3
  2. 2. I do not use them and instead navigate using:

    • Keyboard shortcuts (inc. dedicated keys on some keyboards).
      2
    • Buttons built into my mouse (or trackpad).
      6
    • Mouse/swipe gestures (inc. use on touch displays and motion-based).
      2
    • A clever alternative that you haven't thought to list here.
      1
    • (I answered Question 1 in the affirmative.)
      8


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To clarify, the navigation buttons that I'm referring to are the back and forward buttons that are often found in web browsers, or file system browsers. "Using" them in this case means moving the mouse pointer and then clicking on the button in order to navigate. "Not using" them would mean using an alternative means to navigate.

I usually use gestures on mice that are equipped with touch sensors, but also use keyboard shortcuts about a quarter of the time. I click on Forward buttons very infrequently, when I don't feel like using the keyboard shortcut (I've reprogrammed the Forward gesture on my mice to be middle click, since I use that much more than actually navigating forward).

Feel free to make remarks about your choices (or obligations).

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I just click the buttons. I hate mice that have that side button. The last mouse i owned had one. soooooo ANNOYING. i'd be typing a comment and my thumb would press it and it would go back a page. Then I would go forward again and everything I had just typed was gone. I'm sure i could have configured that so it wouldn't do it. But still.

Mouse buttons for me, dislike working at a clients office and they have some old two button mouse.. Annoying. Goes for the browser, file manager, etc. A typical exception would be clicking on a drop down in a file manager address bar, but otherwise no, got them at my fingertips already, no movement required.

  On 27/02/2015 at 04:45, warwagon said:

I just click the buttons. I hate mice that have that side button. The last mouse i owned had one. soooooo ANNOYING. i'd be typing a comment and my thumb would press it and it would go back a page. Then I would go forward again and everything I had just typed was gone. I'm sure i could have configured that so it wouldn't do it. But still.

Maybe you should try the Microsoft Sculpt Comfort mouse, which...sometimes (but infrequently) acknowledges your gestures about seven seconds after you make them. Surely it would increase your appreciation for those often serviceable buttons. :p

  Quote

Mouse buttons for me, dislike working at a clients office and they have some old two button mouse.. Annoying.

Sometimes I run into an old Intellimouse. Takes me back, all the way to when I remember that mice with wheels were the game changer. :D

Use the mouse buttons for forward/back on my desktop.  On my notebook I click the back/forward buttons with the mouse (or occasionally use the backspace).

 

I highly doubt if I had a touchscreen that I would touch the screen to go forward/back.  Hands on the keyboard/mouse...not the screen.

Yeah I click the buttons. I never use alt-arrow, though I am trying to get into the habit of right clicking and click the back button from there now that I switched to Firefox. I guess I am just used to the buttons because I was a Microsoft fanboy and used IE for such a long time.

On Windows laptops I use the touchpad for everything. I love the touchpads I've had that do every gesture imaginable.

Can't stand touching a laptop that doesn't do all the gestures. And I have never liked a mouse, they suck really.

On tablets and smartphones I use whatever buttons needed to navigate.

I mostly use the mouse wheel left/right tilt. I also use backspace fairly frequently to go back.

 

The main reason to use the back button is to right click on it and get the history to jump back several pages.

  On 27/02/2015 at 04:32, zhangm said:

To clarify, the navigation buttons that I'm referring to are the back and forward buttons that are often found in web browsers, or file system browsers. "Using" them in this case means moving the mouse pointer and then clicking on the button in order to navigate. "Not using" them would mean using an alternative means to navigate.

I usually use gestures on mice that are equipped with touch sensors, but also use keyboard shortcuts about a quarter of the time. I click on Forward buttons very infrequently, when I don't feel like using the keyboard shortcut (I've reprogrammed the Forward gesture on my mice to be middle click, since I use that much more than actually navigating forward).

Feel free to make remarks about your choices (or obligations).

 

 

Can't vote as there is no alternatives for me, I use the button on non touch screen machines, occasionally I will also use rocker gestures, but generally I find it faster to just click the button than to use the swipe gesture, though that may be because I always buy mice with a thumb button for going back...

 

on my tablet I use swipe gestures back and forth all the time(I love the Windows 8 IE swipe gestures).

Generally I don't really use them.

 

I liked in one browser how I could click a little arrow and go back or forward a few pages, rather than Chrome's one either side.

As a rule, I tell people don't use the back button - especially when it comes to purchases!

 

On forums, I keep the "main forum" board open in one tab, and open everything else up in other tabs, so I can always work from the main board tab when going elsewhere.

 

For file browsers, I usually just click on the words in the Address Bar (Windows 7).  However if I am copying something from one folder to another, and have just come from the destination folder, I would use the back button as it's quicker than going back to where the other folder is, then double-clicking the said folder.  If that makes sense.

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